The entry of appliances and televisions to the country’s prisons has become a common practice. Although the law of the penitentiary regime does not authorize it, there are three ways through which these articles reach the inmates: acts of corruption involving penitentiary guards, direct authorization of the director of the Penitentiary System (SP) or by judicial orders.
As part of a new plan to reduce crime rates and homicides in the country, the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior launched operations that include constant requirements in prisons, in order to prevent inmates from making phone calls to extort.
In the operations, televisions, appliances, video game consoles have been seized and other comforts have been evidenced.
Where does the confiscated?
As explained by the former director of the Penitentiary System, Eddy Morales, the seized televisions and appliances do not return to the inmates, but pass to the Judicial Organization (OJ), and after a judicial process that concludes with a sentence, They are subjected to public auction.
In the case of confiscated weapons to those deprived of liberty, these remain in the hands of the Public Ministry and, after the end of the investigation, they are transferred to the warehouse of the General Directorate of Weapons and Ammunition Control (Digecam) for their destruction, since they cannot be reused.
“Nobody from the PNC or OJ can stay with the confiscated, everything must be auctioned or destroyed,” he said.
Income
Morales indicates that the devices can enter through prison guards in exchange for economic benefits, a modality of corruption that has transcended in each prison administration. However, it is also possible to achieve it if the inmate’s lawyer presents a formal request to the rehabilitation unit of the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System or, to a judge, to order the Director General to allow the entry of what is requested.
“These requests are constant, mainly to enter televisions and refrigerators. It is important to mention that although the judge orders it, it is at the discretion of the director of the penitentiary system allow those benefits,” he says.
The former official said that if the inmate is in a preventive situation, he must go to the judge who knows the process; If he has already received a sentence, his lawyer must focus on the criminal execution judge. However, he says that both legal authorizations arouse suspicion, since they are not stipulated in the regulations of the prison system, and most of these permits are granted without considering the behavior of the inmates.
“There are no preferences, good behavior should be taken into account, but, even with good or without good behavior, it should not afford,” says Morales.
He added that, due to the delay in the authorizations of the SP and the judge, the inmates prefer to bribe the security guards to enter all kinds of objects.
Legal gaps
Morales points out that the law of the penitentiary regime presents gaps that allow the entry of objects such as those that are seized and evidenced irregularities in the administration of the penitentiary system.
This law establishes in article 33 everything that is prohibited from entering, such as alcoholic beverages and narcotics. However, Reference is not made to enter appliances or televisionswhich, according to Morales, serves as an argument for lawyers and judges to request a permit to enter these articles and the judge issues a resolution in favor of the deprived of liberty.
“The article says that the use of personal objects such as jewelry or analogues is prohibited, and with that word the judge can prohibit permission, because a refrigerator or a computer are analogous,” says Morales.
They promise measures
Through the Social Communication Office of the Penitentiary System, it was indicated that, in order to ensure that the inmates do not enter more prohibited articles or enjoy comfort, the requisitions will continue in the detention centers and with surprise operations in the access controls during the visiting days, in order to carry out a “meticulous and profound review of visitors and parcels”.
“The detention centers will be equipped with modern technology, bodily scanners and signal blockers will be placed, a new penitentiary guard will be formed and the authorities of the centers will be prohibited from authorizing any income of objects that involve some type of privilege for a deprived of liberty,” it was indicated.
Sanctions
Articles 79, 80 and 81 of said law stipulate the sanctions for the inmates that disrespect the authorities, cause damage to the prison facilities through riots or enter prohibited items. The sanctions contemplate the restriction of visits, the suspension of permits for telephone calls and the impossibility of opting for a reduction of 10% or 15% of the conviction. However, according to the former director of presidios, they are not fulfilled.
After 4 pm on June 7, some 800 agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) entered the Povancito prison to carry out a requisition.
For the most part, stoves, gas cylinders and refrigerators were located. Although the inmates claimed to have authorization to possess those objects, they had not renewed the corresponding documentation, so they were confiscated.
TVs, beds with head -lined with leather, paintings on the walls, stuffed animals, pants with pants and diversity of sports shoes were also located. Private bathrooms were discovered, one of them with a glass door, shower and tiles.